Herb Edelman

Herbert "Herb" Edelman (November 5 1933, Brooklyn, New York – July 21 1996, Woodland Hills, California) was an American actor of stage, film and television. He was twice-nominated for an Emmy for his television work. One of his best-remembered roles was as Stanley Zbornak, the ex-husband of Dorothy Zbornak (played by Beatrice Arthur) on the long-running situation comedy, "The Golden Girls".

Biography

Before becoming an actor, Edelman studied to become a veterinarian at Cornell University, but left during his first year. After serving in the US Army as an announcer for Armed Forces Radio, he enrolled in Brooklyn College as a Theater student, but eventually dropped out. He later worked as a hotel manager, and as a taxicab driver. One of his fares was director Mike Nichols, who in 1963 cast Edelman in his breakthrough Broadway role, as the bewildered telephone repairman in Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park". He reprised his role in the 1967 film version (starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda), and appeared in the movie versions of Simon's "The Odd Couple" (1968) and "California Suite" (1978). He also appeared in an installment of the Japanese movie series "Otoko wa Tsurai yo" in 1979.

He remains best known for his three decades in television, usually as a co-star or recurring character ("Murder, She Wrote", "That Girl", "Welcome Back, Kotter", "St. Elsewhere", "Knots Landing", "Love, American Style", and "Maude", starring Beatrice Arthur), but occasionally in a lead role. He starred in the 1970s children's series "Big John, Little John", as well as "The Good Guys" with Bob Denver (Denver's first series after "Gilligan's Island"), in 1969. He also appeared with Bill Bixby and Valerie Perrine in Bruce Jay Friedman's "Steambath", a controversial PBS dramedy, during 1973. In the early 1980s, he co-starred opposite Robert Stack on the short-lived ABC police drama "Strike Force".

Personal life

Edelman was married to soap opera actress Louise Sorel from 1964 to 1970. He was romantically linked with actress Christina Pickles (his co-star on "St. Elsewhere"), from the mid-1980s until the time of his death.

Edelman succumbed to emphysema in 1996, at the age of 62.

External links

* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9507E5DA1739F934A15754C0A960958260 Herb Edelman, Character Actor, dies at 62]
*imdb|0248983
* [http://www.tv.com/herb-edelman/person/1204/summary.html Herb Edelman Trivia at tv.com]
*